The International Monetary Fund says the high inflation in Ghana is largely due to domestic factors and not external ones.
At a press conference at the recent IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings, African Director at the Fund, Abebe Selassie, disclosed that its analysis shows that inflation is driven more by domestic factors than exogenous factors.
“On inflation, I mean, again, there are always trade-offs when you’re doing, policy calibration, and so in our regional economic outlook, we are very careful to flag that there are some countries where inflation has clearly been driven more by domestic factors than exogenous factors. I think Ghana would fall in that camp.”
“But there are also quite a lot of other countries where the inflation we are seeing is more imported inflation, so the scope and the space and the ability of monetary policy to address that is limited. So again, it depends on country-specific circumstances, and on time”.
Mr. Abebe also stated that monetary policy must be constantly calibrated.
This is due to the fact that the factors influencing inflation are constantly changing, get said.
He added that “exchange rates are moving, commodity prices are moving, so it’s an area where, calibration must be very, looked at again and again and again, as the months proceed. That’s why, Central Bank can say you have to be forward-looking, data-driven, so our advice is also, very much, subject to those considerations”.
Ghana’s inflation rate for September shot up to 37.2%.
The increase moved by 3.3.7%, data provided by the Ghana Statistical Service said.
The factors that contributed to the increase were Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other fuels (68.8%); Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance (51.1%).
The rest were Transport (48.6%); Personal Care, Social Protection and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (42.6%) as well as Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (37.8%).
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
